Gibson

When I first began blogging, it was in memorial to my grandmother, the summer before she passed away. The reactivation of the blog seemed this time to not be connected to sadness and death.

But yesterday morning I took my beagle Gibson to the vet because while still energetic as a goofball, had been laboring in his breath since Friday night. The news was not good. All indications point to lung cancer and the prognosis is bleak - they hope he'll make it to Christmas. Seems crazy and unfair and just horribly sad.

Yesterday was relatively terrible. Not for him. He's still bopping around because he can't understand vet language. I'm sure he doesn't get while I'm crying all the time either. I called my pet loving family on both sides and they were devastated too.

You see, Gibson was the first real commitment for Bob and I. 13 years ago we got engaged in September and in March we picked up a new 6 week old puppy that never made it back home. We picked him out when he was still very tiny and allowed to stay inside but he was the offspring of two hunting dogs (Hook and Juliette) and was sent back to living in a run with a little warming room. It was winter and so cold and at least one puppy had died already when it wandered out into the run. So we got our vet's okay to keep him and he never lived outside again. He's come a long way since then sleeping on a memory foam mattress between the two of us for the last near 13 years...... :)

Bob wasn't a dog person. His sister had a beagle when she lived at home but they hadn't grown up with dogs. So I don't think he realized when I asked him to come with me to see them after they were born that there was no way we'd come home without picking one out. He was hooked by that furry little poofball from the very beginning. We picked him because he was the most uniquely marked of all them - all dark on his back. His name was Dagny (girl dog name) from that time until we took him to the vet and Dr. Childress told us she was a he :).

So I guess for a time, I'll record some of these stories of the life and time of the very best friend a couple could ever have. I can promise you that as I write these, I will be sad and probably sobbing but writing them is my way of celebrating his life.